Repetitive motion can adversely affect product quality and process efficiency. Ergonomics is an evolving scientific discipline that ultimately seeks to understand and improve human interactions with the various pieces of equipment used within a work environment, e.g., keyboards, workstations, torque wrenches, control input devices, and the like. Good ergonomic design practices seek to optimize aspects of the physical work environment as they relate to the human operators working therein.
Certain work tasks may stress an operator in a manner that cannot be lessened by even the most optimal of ergonomic workplace configurations. For example, manual operations requiring a repetitive or sustained grasping of an object can stress an operator's hands, fingers, and forearms. As a result, an operator's grip strength and productivity can gradually decline over the course of a work day. Grip strength can also vary widely between different operators due to differences in physical stature, injury, and/or muscle fatigue. The variable nature of a given operator's grip strength may result in relatively inefficient execution of certain grasp-related work tasks.